SOURCE: “The Global Village in Rudy Wiebe's Peace Shall Destroy Many and Bhabani Bhattacharya's A Dream in Hawaii,” in Literary Half-Yearly, Vol. 36, No. 1, January, 1995, pp. 80-93.

In the realm of ethics and values,
Materialism is naked egoism
directed to the love of abstract
power and animal enjoyments as such. …

（p. 27, RPCP）

Any comprehensive, and analytical study of the literature of a particular nation would often necessitate the study of a world literature in the same period for which a comparative study of the literature of different nations is essential. A “Literature-Culture” discipline has many uses, for, it can explore the ways in which literature as a key to the understanding of culture, illuminates a culture's intellectual and imaginative life. It could investigate how literature not only “reflects” and “refracts” but also “lives” and forms the values, social habits and assumptions of cultures. It could help identify the conditions in a civilization which foster or discourage creative achievement in literature and the arts and study the ways in which literature activates or inspires social concerns. Familiarisation with the creative processes in a culture, while ministering to personal enrichment, should contribute to inter-cultural understanding as the study of literature, because of its concern with “Universal Values”. It is a potent means of transcending the confines of particular cultures.

It is at this point important to note C. D. Narasimhaiah's view that in India, literature is primarily a cultural pursuit, for literature and culture have been according to him interchangeable terms. To quote him on the twin values of literature,

What is also recognised in its twin-values of “Prayojana” and “Purushartha”, social utility and “ultimate value”, or that by which all else is known.

（p. 79, AWWID）

Literature is used to study the social life of a period and the study of a literature is perhaps the best way of learning about a culture in its various particularities, its different shades of meaning and its own unique tone. As Guy Amirthanayagam defines it

Literature is an invaluable cultural expression because it springs from its cultural nexus … with an immediacy, a freshness, a concreteness, an authenticity and a power of meaning which are not easily found in other emanations or through other channels.

（p. 3, AWWID）

Literary studies has taken a new direction now, in the use of literature for learning about a culture. Culture is a rich word and in modern times, writers, critics and artists are trying to promote a common culture in the global village. It is a “rich resource of the human mind” and as Malcolm Bradbury says

it breaks the barriers of nationality and links the community of man,

（p. 13, AWWID）

and as Guy Amirthanayagam refers to it,

Culture is counterminous with the human, artistic and moral world of the work of literary creation.

（p. 12, AWWID）

Literature, good literature is much concerned with truth, and treats of the most crucial experiences of man and because man is a social animal, these experiences have a social-context and therefore aid in determining and completing our knowledge of the human and cultural condition. Literature is now slowly trying to acquire a special value in the modern scientific age. Natural Sciences and Social Sciences seem to be losing their hold on man and his confidence. People are turning to literature for values whose life-support was once provided by religion and philosophy. Since literature expresses the life lived at the time it proves to be a true source of the realities of a society, of life-giving values and value-judgements. As Guy Amirthanayagam opines

Today one goes to literature for the very creation of values.

（p. 9, AWWID）

Social and political systems fall short of depicting these values. So, a literature of cross-culture, cultural contact, should be systematically studied for it proves to be part of a common cause, not merely of inter-cultural understanding but of humanity and its future.

From this point of view, this paper tries to assume a singular significance, for it tends to deal with two major writers from two great cultures and analyse one of their novels each in the light of global concerns such as Peace, religion, humanism and universal values. The novels discussed here are Rudy Wiebe's Peace Shall Destroy Many and Bhabani Bhattacharya's A Dream in Hawaii. The writers present two different cultures and stories in two different settings but with the same sense of purpose.

Among the concepts that provide a key to the growth and development of Rudy Wiebe and Bhabani Bhattacharya as humanist artists, one of the most important is wisdom. For both, wisdom is a complex, growing concept where the most important element is human experience; such a one as Eliot describes:

that holds on human values, that grasp of human experience with a relationship with religious comprehension.

（p. 146, G&A）

Like Eliot, Wiebe and Bhattacharya seem to be sceptical and disillusioned about humanistic wisdom which they find to be inadequate to deal with the problems of the modern world and so turn to the necessity to complete it by religious experience. As artists, they are inclined to produce works of art that can only “appeal to the experimental test” for they approve of the view that the need of the post modernist world is the discipline and training of the emotions. In Rudy Wiebe religion plays a prominent role and in Bhabani Bhattacharya “man” seems to be the focus except in his later novels especially in the novel chosen for study A Dream in Hawaii, where he turns to religion and spiritual values. But in both the writers, the place given to values such as peace, spiritualism, freedom and human attributes is almost identical.

Peace Shall Destroy Many was first published in 1962 and was hailed by Rom Founders, as a first-rate novel by any “Standard of judgement”. It deals with the story of Deacon Block, a massively domineering character who is a typical sample from the Mennonite Community. The events take place in 1944 the year of the decisive battles of World War II. Wiebe presents a unique picture of this particular community for whom the church is the centre of living and Pacifism the central tradition of the church. He does believe in the reality of hell and that all persons who violate others rights and live as hypocrites inevitably go there. In fact he had been a victim of sin, for, he had under extreme provocation killed a man in Russia and had never recovered from the shock. This man had, in extraordinarily sad and pressing circumstances robbed the bread that he had preserved for his son. This was during the acute famine in Russia. For this sin, instead of confessing and living with it, he lives to atone for it, by providing for his children and the Mennonites an environment that will be “an island of holiness in a sea of despair.” He tries to provide a leadership and strength to his community that will make it possible for them to lead pure lives. In this attempt, which he strives hard to maintain, he ultimately fails, for his own children fail to comply with his rules and preaching. In an effort to protect his daughter, he had forbidden, her marrying Herman Paetauf because he was an illegitimate child. In frustration and despair, his daughter engages in sexual immorality—“the nadir of sin for all Mennonites” with Louis Moosomin, a dirty, irresponsible half-breed whom Block had to hire because the war had made other help impossible. Further, when she, his child whom he lovingly strove to protect, dies in shame, in childbirth, his hopes are totally shattered. His hope for an isolated and pure world is destroyed. Hell is broken loose when he attacks Moosomin brutally and kills him to avenge his daughter. Deacon Block is a very clearly etched character by Rudy Wiebe, a man who is willing to damn his soul for the sake of his son and daughter.

Thom Wiens is yet another fine portrayal, who is the protagonist of the novel. An eighteen year old Mennonite, sensible and sensitive waiting for his draft call. A young man searching for identity and self knowledge. Like so many heroes of modern fiction, he is in conflict with the values of his own society, because they are false, inadequate and phoney. A dauntless, brave man, honest and unafraid to face unpleasant facts. With the war as backdrop, Thom is aware of the upheavals in the world outside Wapiti and is uncomfortable at the irresponsible and indifferent attitude of the Mennonites, who fail to heed the world outside. While others are dying in the war front, the Mennonites go on heedlessly, unmindful of the conflicts outside. It is shocking for him to discover that Deacon Peter Block who professes and preaches justice and fellowship is striving to keep the world outside his community. In his quest for viable standards it is shattering for Thom to discover that he cannot find them in the staunch defender of the Mennonite traditions, the man who sacrificed much to bring the Wapiti Mennonites to Sasketchewan from Russia. It is shattering to learn that Peter Block not only opposes his efforts to help the natives but is also guilty of heinous sins. He is selfish in trying to protect the community from the outside world. Ninety percent of the entire book is seen through Thom's eyes. Without Thom the novel is a study of disintegration. All the characters in this novel are thorough-going Mennonites, at the same time universal types. The Unger Brothers, Herb & Hank, Herb a careless, unkempt and dirty-minded bachelor—a farmer, and Hank, a flier in the Canadian Air Force who enjoys shooting down Nazis. Elizabeth Block the daughter of the deacon a frustrated and desperate woman driven to death. Pete Block, the quiet son of the deacon who cannot break away from the patterns of thought of his dominating father and who disastrously falls in love with Razia Tantamount, a pretty young and sensuous school teacher at Wapiti, lonely in a community of strange people whom she fails to understand. She craves for the life of mirth and jollity and the big city. Mrs. Block, a meek and mild wife, so docile and subservient to her husband, mild almost to invisibility and several other minor characters.

Thom and Deacon Block are the two major characters in the novel who have to learn a lot from each other, just as Swami Yogananda and Walt Gregson in Bhattacharya's A Dream in Hawaii. Bhattacharya's novel published in 1978 deals with almost the same theme as Wiebe's Peace Shall Destroy Many, that man shall not live by bread alone and that he needs food for his hungry soul too, for man cannot stay away totally from the world of desire and evil; he has to reckon with it and try to get over it by conquering it with spiritual wisdom. Just as Deacon Block and Thom Wiens, who stand poles apart in the beginning of Peace Shall Destroy Many are brought together in the end, in their awareness of peace, religion and spiritualism so also in A Dream in Hawaii, Neeloy Mukherjee or Swami Yogananda and Walt Gregson are brought together.

A Dream in Hawaii deals with the story of Neeloy Mukherjee a young teacher of philosophy in an Indian University, who turns a Yogi, due to the cumulative effect of his own spiritual aspirations and the suggestions of his student Devjani, whom he secretly loves. This teacher-Yogi called Swami Yogananda becomes popular and establishes an Ashram at Rishikesh and attracts a large number of disciples both native and foreign. Stella, an American tourist, a Ph.D. student in Hinduism who is revulsed at the kind of completely uninhibited four letter orgiastic sex, demanded by her husband Walt Gregson, turns to Swami Yogananda and at her request he goes to America to give discourses on Eastern Philosophy—present universal Religion in its Vedantic Concept. In America he becomes very popular for as Bhattacharya describes

It could be that they were motivated by the current lostness in American life, acutely felt but hardly comprehended. Yellow-robed men from the East held out the bright promise of inner adjustment and peace; a promise that dramatised their appearance on the western scene as an advent.

（p. 50, DIH）

There is further progress in Swami Yogananda's life for Dr. Vincent Swift, the twentieth century culture-vulture persuades him to start a world center for yoga at Hawaii—to rival the Hare Krishna Movement and the Transcendental Movement, which have established firm roots in America. While there is progression on one side in Swamiji's life, there is retrogression on the other side, for, he is not able to strip himself of the guilt of his inner physical desire for Devjani who is at present at Hawaii, at the East-West Center as a student doing research. Further, the fall of Swami Yogananda is worked out by Bhabani Bhattacharya in a very neat and effective way, similar to that of Deacon Block in Peace Shall Destroy Many. He falls a pray to the plot of Walt Gregson, who sees through the seeming detachment and celibacy of Swami Yogananda, and tries to prove his true nature by sending his mistress Sylvia Koo to awaken the dormant, deeply buried sexual desires of Swami Yogananda. As expected, Swamiji falls for Sylvia taking her to be Devjani and careless her in a half-conscious state of sleep. But there is a change here that Bhattacharya works out in the character of Swami Yogananda （Neeloy Mukherjee）: he gets back to his normal self, rejects Sylvia and decides to discard the yellow robe—to kill the tiger of deception and self-deception, and be true to his inner nature, and so returns to India as Neeloy Mukherjee, an ordinary human being. Further if in Neeloy there is a change from the sanyasi to the ordinary human, in Walt Gregson there is a change from the hard-brained materialist, a votary of sexual permissiveness who had strong conviction that the bad is

a key-symbol for the New American, the American of the century's Seventh decade,

（p. 24）

to spiritual attitudes, religious fervour and a realisation of the spiritual aspects of life.

The protagonists in both the novels are men whose mission in life is a quest for truth. The dominating characters are Deacon Block and Swami Yogananda. Both are religious men trying to promote peace and harmony in the worlds in which they live. The people of America had great faith in Swami Yogananda and went into raptures over his preachings. The people of Wapiti, likewise had great faith in Deacon Block and looked up to him as a flock to the shepherd for security, comfort and peace. Both wished to promote and establish communities of peace and love in their surroundings. Though Block had come from Russia, he was not an alien. He had become one of them, the Wapiti Mennonites. In the same way, Swami Yogananda

merged himself in the listeners and they merged into him. He grew with them into depths of understanding, soul-searching. They grew with him likewise.

（p. 178–179, DIH）

When Deacon Block spoke in the church and in the meetings the people listened with obedient, rapt attention for he was

Deacon; everyone's quiet and Peaceful when he speaks.

（p. 218, PSDM）

If one is a Priest, one is a yogi; if one has vowed to sacrifice materialism and worldly desires, the other has vowed celibacy and sacrifice. But both suffer from the pangs of a guilty past. A past which they cannot shun, a past which is formidably, present and for which they try to make amends. If it is a secret desire for a woman on the part of Swami Yogananda, it is a crime of murder on the part of Deacon Block. His crime is heinous, but for Yogananda, who has vowed to be a celibate, a secret desire for a woman is equally bad. Further, it is interesting to note how the two writers bring about the fall of their dominating protagonists. After high aspirations to become a spiritualist as Swami Yogananda sought and to establish a pure world devoid of sin and problems as Block wished, it is tragic to see how their ambitions are shattered and destroyed and how they go back to their original selves, after the worlds they try to build, collapse. After being totally human they aspire to be models, good models of the religious and spiritual leaders, and however sincerely they try, they are not able to maintain their balance for both external as well as internal factors and the evil world drives them crazy with tension. For Swami Yogananda it is more of internal conflict for he as an ascetic is not able to drive away or suppress his sexual desires for Devjani and he comes to the conclusion that the saffron robes of celibacy are not fit for him for however much he tries, he is not able to keep the evil in him at bay. For Deacon Block, it is more of external conflict for his own actions have wrought the downfall of his children and he bows in shame and frustration and despair and feels that Priesthood has not been the proper thing for him—for in his role as priest he could not be successful. So both the heroes were failures as priests and religious persons. Both of them were not able to build an ideal world for their flock. Both of them are guilt-ridden and come to the conclusion that the evil in man and in the world have to be reckoned with, and it is not easy to don the robes of an ascetic and maintain a purity of mind and purity of heart.

Where there is progress from spiritualism to an understanding that peace and purity cannot be maintained easily, there is another move in both the novels. The move from an understanding of the material world to the spiritual through Walt Gregson in A Dream in Hawaii and Thom Weins in Peace Shall Destroy Many. In more than one way both are seekers of truth and reality. There is to a great extent, a realisation of the self in the end in both the characters Thom Weins and Walt Gregson. Walt Gregson is a seeker of the sensuous pleasure of the flesh and thoroughly worldly in the beginning but he too changes in the end. He becomes aware that evil cannot be done away with, desire cannot be set aside, but it is in the overcoming of that desire that goodness lies. Slowly he is drawn towards Swami Yogananda and feels sorry for the ascetic and runs to meet him before he leaves. Here, the transformation of Walt Gregson is brought out very effectively

His awakening to a new facet of his personal problem—that alone could be meaningful. … He sat up in bed thinking. And out of the chaos of contrary thought ways, a strange conviction was taking shape; despite all his bitter challenge he himself was in deeply felt personal need of Swami Yogananda.

（p. 243–244, DIH）

The man who was responsible for the downfall of the Yogi, now becomes an admirer and wishes to pay respect to the Yogi, acknowledging spiritual values. Likewise, Thom Wiens, who had always cornered Deacon Block, questioned him, rebelled against his principles, is sad at his downfall and as Wiebe puts it

is disillusioned with the values of the tradition of his fathers, with the leaders he has been taught to honour

（p. 74 VIL）

If Walt Gregson moves from ignorance to experience in his turn to religion and spiritual values, Thom Wiens also matures considerably. He learns that

no forest and bush, no matter how dense, can keep evil from his life, for it is present in the Wapiti Community and within his own heart.

（p. 73, VIL）

It is evident in the characters of Deacon Block and Swami Yogananda that they have engulfed themselves in prisons of their own making: of isolation, of rigid principles, of strict adherence to the moral code etc; in Deacon Block and of religious discipline, propagation of Yogic ethics and principles in Swami Yogananda. Unfortunately evil lurks around the corner and both of them cannot uphold their enclosed selves and their preachings. The bars of the prisons collapse and they are their old selves again. In his quest for faith to live by, Thom discovers that he cannot find this faith inside himself and he further finds himself unworthy. Walt Gregson after leading the most shabby life finds that he is totally useless and unworthy.

In comparison, both the novels are lessons in reality, the novelists trying to give the reader one of the most fundamental truths of the human experience—and of religion the staggering evidence of human depravity. Both Bhabani Bhattacharya and Ruby Wiebe make it obvious that underneath the brittle crust of decency lurks the savage, not only in corrupt men like Gregson but also in decent men like Deacon Block, Thom Wiens and Swami Yogananda. In short, one can say that modern novelists cannot be sanguine about the perfectibility and essential goodness of human nature and, as Rudy Wiebe says,

must exemplify Paul's old and bitter truth that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

（p. 76, VIL）

Wiebe throws a search light on sin but does not end the novel with a portrayal of man's sinfulness. He recognises a possibility of grace and redemption. Written with World War II in the background, Peace Shall Destroy Many deals with peace and the quest for peace.

If in suppression and avoidance lay defeat, then victory beckoned in pushing ahead. Only a conquest by love unites the combatants. And in the heat of this battle lay God's peace. “My Peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth”.

（p. 238, PSDM）

Torn between Joseph Dueck's teachings and his own faith in the community, Thom Wiens is left alone wandering and longing for peace. Joseph Dueck serves as the catalyst for Thom Wiens' quest for peace. His friendship paves way for new thoughts about the meaning of existence and the Christian's relationship with his fellow beings and about the true nature of peace as a living fellowship with God and man. Thom Wiens has received a war call from Germany but is hesitant to join, for, to his community, the rules and tradition of war is the culmination of worldly evil. Peace acquires various meanings in Peace Shall Destroy Many. It is ironically shown as a selfish state of secular security which the Deacon tries to establish. He closes all the doors of the external world on the Wapiti Mennonite Community thinking that, that is peace, the establishment of rules and discipline. Elizabeth Block tells him prophetically to get away from Wapiti, from a peace that imposes restrictions and rules, that frustrates and kills. She says

Go away from here—Wapiti—for a few years … like last winter with Joseph—you'll be buried here under rules that aren't as important as this chaff.

（p. 140–141, PSDM）

Her foreboding comes true, for the peace that her father had thought would come to her through his restrictions and rules only led to her fall and destruction. Further Deacon Block's establishing “peace” in his church and community by not allowing outsiders, only shows the Mennonites' hatred for Canadian natives. This only portrays the Wapiti Mennonites' ironic hope of maintaining peace and harmony with themselves and the outside world. The same peace that Deacon Block celebrates, destroys him and many others associated with him; the peace that seclusion brings, the peace that rules, discipline and regulations bring, the peace that the tradition of his forefathers suggest, a peace that is a passive acceptance of bondage. In fact, peace is lost for the people in the community for they find themselves at war with one another just as in A Dream in Hawaii, the Indians and the Americans try to establish Ashrams and institutions to promote peace and goodwill. Finally peace is seen in the novel as an inner state of being, the peace of Christ, “the mighty inner river” that flows constantly and that is found lacking in characters like Block.

Ironically, as peace destroys, it also establishes happiness. Peace and a quest for peace has destroyed Wapiti which is presented in the fighting scene in the barn—it has destroyed, secluded, rigid and hard Wapiti and gained for it freedom, fellowship and peace. A war has to be fought, an external war to secure a right relation with the outside world. A peace that is based on neglect and evasion will destroy, is Rudy Wiebe's opinion. So peace is associated with friendliness, understanding, good relationships, mutual love, affection and freedom. In fact, this is the global village that Wiebe and Bhattacharya visualise. This is the same message that Bhattacharya stresses in his novel. Spurred on by a lack of peace and understanding and filled with a spirit of religious fervour Neeloy Mukherjee embarks on a journey through life as a Yogi to establish peace in the Indian Community and in other parts of the world. In fact, his reaching America, disturbed with loss of values, lack of peace, full of disillusion and lack of faith in values is ironic. A man torn between his desires, his ambition, peace and harmony in the world. He lacks the “inner peace”; he is in mid-position, torn between feelings of the flesh and the spirit but trying to promote peace and fellowship. There is a quest for peace in almost all the main characters, for from a thoroughly materialistic world they proceed towards the spiritual.

Being humanists, both Rudy Wiebe and Bhattacharya aim at man's well being and so end in a note of hope for man. The novels do not end in despair but make a way for grace and redemption and an understanding of religion and spiritual values and prove that ultimately mankind's hope lies in religion for Bhabani Bhattacharya—Hinduism and for Rudy Wiebe—Christianity. As writers with a moral purpose, they agree that man is liable to err and fall into the pit of sin but he has a chance to correct himself and make way toward a good future and that future lies in religion. Through the presentation of the life of an individual and particular community the artists aim at the universal. They present the Universal theme of man's search for meaning in life, his discovery of his sin and need for redemption and finally his trying to live a life of freedom, peace and harmony in a world full of sin and evil.

References

1. Rudy Wiebe, Peace Shall Destroy Man, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1972. All the subsequent page references [cited as PSDM] are from this edition.

2. Bhabani Bhattacharya, A Dream in Hawaii, New Delhi: Macmillan, 1978. All the subsequent page references are from this edition.

3. Wilbur Long, “Religion in the Idealistic Tradition”, Religion in Philosophical and Cultural Perspective, eds. Clayton Feaver and William Horosz, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1967.

4. C. D. Narasimhaiah, “Literature in the Global Village: An Inquiry into Problems of Response”, Asian and Western Writers in Dialogue: New Cultural Identities, ed. Guy Amirthanayagam, Hong Kong, Macmillan, 1982.

5. Guy Amirthanayagam, Asian and Western Writers in Dialogue: New Cultural Identities, Hong Kong: Macmillan, 1982.

6. G. S. Amur, “Concept of Wisdom in T. S. Eliot”, English and India, eds. M. Manuel and K. Ayappa Panikker, Delhi: Macmillan Press, 1978.

7. W. J. Keith, A Voice in the Land, Alberta: NeWest Publishers, 1981.